Events - Phoenix Rising Productions - Promoting up and coming bands specialising in melodic rock and AOR

Phoenix Rising "Parting The Waves" 6/8/00

Damned Nation
Push
Contagious
Lost Weekend
Tikaboo Peak
Down Boys

One thing that always puzzles me about our beloved genre is our preference for the recorded work over the live performance. Avid collectors, (myself included) ,think nothing of flashing the plastic card towards our preferred mail order outlet to the sum of hundreds of pounds every month, but when it comes to paying a paltry ten quid to see a value-for-money six-band bill, on an otherwise bereft of entertainment Sunday afternoon, it just seems to be too much trouble for some people. The hard working Phoenix team must be wondering what they have to do to increase the number from the one hundred or so that usually make the effort, but for those who didn’t, I’m afraid it was your loss. Sorry to get on the soapbox here, but it makes me wonder just what percentage of the average Gods or Z-Rock crowd actually travel from abroad?

Down Boys aren’t having much luck. Their singer left just days before they played the previous Phoenix, so they bravely played their songs without vocals. This time they arrive ten minutes before they’re due to go on and still have to assemble the drumkit before going on without a soundcheck. This time with a singer, they turn out to be much heavier than most people expected, most of the songs sounding like a cross between old and new style metal. A bit of Sabbath here, a touch of Soundgarden there, and a singer with a powerful voice that’s a mixture of Ian Astbury, Jim Morrison and Ozzy. Songs like ‘Dead’ and ‘Full Of Lead’ are pretty straight-forward metal riffs, while ‘Obsession’ is dark and brooding, it would be quite frightening if it weren’t for the singer’s cheesy grins between the vocal lines. The musicians are good, with drummer Wilf in particular being busy and energetic. They certainly didn’t do themselves any harm with this performance, although this was probably not an ideal crowd for them to play for.

When Tikaboo Peak played their first ever gig in this very club, most were impressed by their confidence in themselves and their clean and honest approach to making melodic music. In the few months since then they’ve proved that they can impress a bigger audience at the Gods, and even had moderate success in a battle of the bands contest in their native Sheffield, a contest that was open to all forms of music. No mean feat for a band choosing such an untrendy direction. Now brimming with even more confidence and some better songs, they launch into ‘Safe and Sound’ with a swagger that reminds me of the early unsigned days of another Sheffield band, whose name escapes me at the moment. The first thing you notice is just how good Dale’s voice is, reminding me of the Tyger’s Jon Deverill in places, with the moves of Sebastian Bach to match. The songs are simple but cleverly written to make full use of his vocal talents, and when added to the clean dual guitar sound of Jerome and Pete, and Rich’s solid bass, makes for a thoroughly listenable experience. Special mention for drummer Lee, who performed admirably as a last minute addition after yet another attack of the Spinal Taps. ‘Blood From A Stone’, the ballad ‘Dreamland’ , ‘Own World’ and ‘Calm Before The Storm’ continue in the same vein. Catchy and well written and bringing early Little Angels to mind, until the closing trio of ‘Tell Me I’m The One’, ‘Paranoid Mind’ and ‘Better (When You’re Not There)’ add a little more quality to the proceedings. The latter especially being one of those choruses you can’t get out of your head. They thought they’d finished, only to be told they couldn’t go without doing their storming version of White Sister’s ‘Promises’ as an encore. Although it’s one of my favourite songs from one of my favourite albums, I wouldn’t want them to end up being that band who do the White Sister song. I think they have much more to offer than that, and surely someone will offer them a deal soon.

After Lost Weekend’s last appearance at Rockworld I changed my opinion of the band, from pub rockers to genuine British AOR contenders. Their ‘Presence Of Mind’ CD has proved that they’re one of the most improved acts on the scene (see review last issue) and they obviously realise this as well because their entire set is taken from the new release. The main reason for this improvement has to be the songs, which in general are a huge step forward for the band, and vocalist Paul Uttley, who easily matches the recorded versions. Opening with the catchy ‘Moment So Long’ the sound is huge from the excellent P.A. with David Thompson’s guitar being satisfyingly chunky, and some taped keyboards cutting through the crystal clear mix. ‘In Time’ and ‘Can You Believe’ follow with the same fire and energy, rawer than the studio versions and with one or two bum notes from David, more due to him attacking the instrument like a rabid animal than any lack of skill on his part. ‘Kiss From the Heart’ bounces along on Jack Himsworth’s precision drumming and Robin Patchett’s 5 string bass. ‘Holding On’ has great use of dynamics, while ‘Best Is Yet To Come’ slows the pace down with some acoustic guitar from Dave, who is a very explosive guitarist and can’t resist doing a bit of widdly-widdly, even in the ballads. After Paul had apologised for the keyboards being on tape for the umpteenth time, they ended the set with the foot-tapping ‘Slipping Through My hands’, and ‘All Hands’ which had some excellent drum and bass work again. The band work very hard and the album deserves to be heard by fans of classic British rock bands like UFO and FM.

At this years Z-Rock Contagious were pretty impressive but only played a handful of songs. This time we were treated to a bit more, and if you were there and weren’t impressed, you need to pay an immediate visit to your local ear specialist. If you thought they were good at Z-Rock then let me tell you that it was nothing compared to this. Operating more in the Melodic Hard Rock field than pure AOR, Contagious have enough guitar raunch going on to appeal to the riff merchants, but enough in the vocal harmony department to send shivers of delight up the spine of the average Journey fan. Songs like ‘Danger’ and ‘Muscle’ exude hard rock class, while ‘Love Can Always Heal The Pain’ and ‘Lost & Lonely’ show off how much the band have improved in a few short months. Glenn’s vocals are as note perfect as they are effortless, and Tony and Paul’s harmonies take things a step further. The guitars of Tony and Pete complement each other perfectly and both players play for the song rather than a need to impress, both being tasteful and unfussy. They all come across as extremely confident, and if they can find a stable line-up there’s no telling what they could achieve. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

Having previously heard how much fun Push were live, I was very disappointed with them in April, however that was mostly due to the sound. This time they were a revelation, playing a sharp and snappy set mostly taken from their recently released ‘On The Run’ album. Their brand of White Lion gone glam party rock put a big smile on most people’s faces and even though their music isn’t in the same class as Damned Nation, they nevertheless gave the headliners a run for their money. Opening with ‘On The Run’ itself, the band tear through ‘Almost Pornographic’ and ‘Waitin’ In Line’ with hardly a pause for breath. ‘Believe In love’ and ‘Broken Down’ demonstrate their new-found maturity in the songwriting, as well as some totally tasteful playing from guitarist Martin Daric. Martie Peters is a brash energetic frontman who managed the rare feat of actually getting a Phoenix crowd to dance, something only ever achieved by the top of the bill band previously. He sounds much less like Mike Tramp than he does on album, and leads his troops from the front with the confidence of a seasoned veteran. The solid rhythm section of drummer Tommy Adler and bassist Kasper Sogreen keep things ticking over nicely, with Adler in particular doing some sterling bass drum work. They go on to deliver ‘Soul On Fire’, probably the best track from their debut ‘Maximum Entertainment’, and finish with ‘Never Too Loud’ and my personal favourite, ‘Never Again’.

Damned Nation had a lot to live up to, but they have a couple of aces in their pack. One is vocalist Thomas Thorsen, a great singer in the classic David Coverdale mould who puts in a great performance without even breaking into a sweat. The other is Robert Warnqvist, a guitarist of startling ability with a stage persona like Jim Carrey on speed. Poor Thomas tries so hard to look like the archetypal cool rock singer, which must be really hard to do when you’ve got a mad jumping guitarist at one side, and an equally demented grinning bass player on the other. Another thing they have in abundance is songs and the set is just about split evenly over the two Z albums. ‘When The Truth Becomes A Lie’ would be a song to finish with for most bands, but Damned Nation have so much good material that they can afford to open with it. The sound is spot-on, as it was for all the bands here, with all the instruments being clear and powerful. The keys of Anders Andersson are mostly understated , but when he’s called upon you can tell that he’s a bit special. ‘Fortune Teller’ and ‘Stone Cold Woman’ have a strong Whitesnake influence, while ‘I Got What It Takes’ and ‘Road Of Desire’ are already stage favourites. If I have to find fault with them, I thought they played their best songs too early on and a few are a little too samey. But you can’t fault the delivery and commitment, you can tell that they’re really into what they’re doing, and that enthusiasm carries over to the audience who bring them back on for a well deserved encore of ‘Come Hell Or High Water’.

All in all, a great day for those who bothered to turn up, see you next time.

Phil Ashcroft